Okay, we're gonna go ahead and get started.

Uh we were on item 5A.

We have a motion from Vice Mayor Nielsen, a second from Councilmember Weiss.

And at this time, uh we are voting again to adopt resolution 1029-0526 to set forth the fiscal year 2027 tentative budget and establishing the city's annual expenditure limit and authorize the mayor, city manager or city attorney and city clerk to execute the necessary documents.

So with that, could you please vote?

Okay, item passes five to two.

Ron, next item, please.

Council's direction to bring forth a resolution to order and call a special election for public safety general obligation bond in November 2026.

So last year, council city um city council provided direction to staff to form a citizen bond committee to make a recommendation to council regarding the use of bond funds for future capital projects.

Members of the committee attended four meetings and reviewed the city's CIP plan, its remaining bond authorization at the time, its prior use of bond funds, and the city's property tax rate.

The city recommended and uh city council approved, placing two bond questions on the November ballot, one for parks and recreation and libraries, and one for public safety.

The parks and rec and libraries question passed, the public safety bond failed by just 13 votes.

So cities council's direction to staff was to bring the public safety question once again to discuss the option of calling a bond election in November of this year for up to $55 million.

So the public safety bond would include these five projects from police, fire and medical, and city courts.

These are the same projects the bond committee previously recommended to council last year.

The first is Southern Avondale Fire and Police Substation, the new public safety headquarters, the police firearms training facility, main police station expansion, and the city court expansion.

The facility is currently under a design and will provide greater response times for all residents by keeping the crew the fire crews closer to their first two areas and will assist in serving major events at the raceway.

Similarly, it will include a briefing and office location for police officers, enhancing visibility, reducing response times, and improving overall patrol services.

A new building to house these critically important functions is needed within the next 10 years.

Access to those facilities is becoming increasingly limited, and it takes officers out of their patrol areas for longer periods of time.

A proposed training facility would provide officers a local and accessible place to hone their skills, maintain their certifications, and improve their response and overall patrol availability.

The majority of police personnel are located at the main headquarters on the city hall campus.

It includes dispatch, evidence storage, crime lab, and support services to improve coordination, response, and accountability.

The building was designed for expansion to address needed space for growth, and this project would complete the final build out of the Avondale police station.

The city court, like police and fire, is also experiencing increased caseloads and demand for services.

As such, the court is out of space within its existing footprint.

As you can see from the photos, staff are working in our file rooms, which were not intended to house employees.

Increased workloads mean more files, and files must be stored for statutorily required time frames.

This project would address the need for additional offices and storage.

One of the important aspects of the recommendation is to look at the property tax rate, which is what pays for the bonds.

So thanks to the city's continued growth and stable property values, new bonds can be issued without increasing the property tax rate.

This is possible by issuing new bonds as older bonds are paid off.

So once a portion of the debt is paid down, new capacity becomes available to reinvest in improvements.

Projects will be timed to match this available capacity, and the city council must approve each bond issuance before it moves forward.

So this slide is a visual depiction of how that works with the primary property tax in blue, the secondary property tax, which pays for the bonds in orange.

And as that orange debt gets paid off, then we have capacity to issue new debt in green.

That would allow us to keep a steady property tax rate.

So the recommendation for council this evening is to approve a resolution to order and call a special election for public safety general obligation bonds.

There are some other things for council to take into consideration is whether other taxing districts will also be playing placing measures on the ballot this November.

We have to keep in mind that cities and towns appear last in the sequencing on a ballot.

Another factor is voter participation.

Last year was a special election that was a completely mail-in election, a mail-in ballot.

This year's election would expect to see higher voter participation.

And lastly, is whether there are other districts measures that could affect the outcome of the City of Avondale's bond question.

So if council were to approve the call for election, the next steps would be notifying Maricopa County and develop informational items for the public and conducting outreach.

This year, the first day to cast a ballot will be October 7th, and election day will be on November 3rd.

If the bond authorization is approved by voters, projects would be incorporated into the city's CIP in the appropriate year and will be subject to council approval during the annual budget process.

So this does conclude my presentation, and I will turn it over to the mayor for any questions or council discussion.

Thank you, Renee.

And at this time, the city council have any questions regarding this item.

And again, as a reminder, debate and opinion shall be held until after the motion.

I do have a question, Renee.

Just a mere fact if there are other entities that will have bonds.

You said that'd be on the third page or the last page or whatever it might be.

How might that affect, or you have any idea how that might affect if there's two or three or four or five bonds going on at the same time?

So mayor, vice mayor.

So knowing that cities and towns will always appear last, that means that voters will have to get towards the end of the ballot.

We know from the results of our prior election that fewer people voted as the uh questions went on on the ballot.

So in our own um questions last year, we had more people voting in our first question than in our second.

And I guess that would be the other question I would have.